Q. When did Flower Vision start? Tell us about the history...
The project started as a way for me to finally finish something that I would have started. It was ideas and melodies I had in my head for the past few months, and I felt the urge to record them. It only crossed my mind that I would be, eventually, able to, like, release them after I was done with them. The name FLOWER VISION was playing on my mind since last year, as a band name, and thought that this way I would be able to ‘’kill two birds with one stone’’, I guess.

Q. Who are your influences?
When it comes to influences, it’s always a really weird one for me. I mean, it’s what you listen while growing up, isn’t it? For me, Morrissey will always have a special place in my heart. I tend to cling to musicians, mostly because of their view of the world, rather than their music, because, in the end of the day, it’s their charisma that attracts you (of course, making mind-blowing music helps as well!). I don’t know… Peter Doherty, Keaton Henson… definitely Oasis, maybe also the Blur! Oh, and the Beatles. Anything by the Beatles.

Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Psychocandy (because of what it means to all the people who love it)
Molly Nilsson – These Things Take Time (because of what it means to me)
Foxygen - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (because Sam France is the dude)
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs (because every time I listen to Asleep, it makes want to hide under my duvet)
Queens of the Stone Age - …Like Clockwork (because it feels like a force of nature and it’s the album that can awake ALL my feelings, sadness, happiness, lust, longing, sometimes all at the same time)

Q. How do you feel playing live?
Considering I haven’t in a while, I am not sure I can remember. I am looking forward to doing some shows with Flower Vision in the near future… I reckon it’ll push me out of my bubble, for better or worse.

Q. How do you describe Flower Vision´s sounds?
To me, it sounds like losing the last train home. It is melancholic, even distant at some places, but at least you are left with the ‘’what if I did something else differently?’’ question, and that’s what makes it interesting. I think, at least for ‘’Voodoos of Ambition’’, the main concept was projecting the sense of being left alone, in a huge city, where you are only a small part of this whole machine. If you listen closely though, there are happy notes in there as well. There always are. As a work, as a sound, it’s hard to explain, but I hope there is something you can take with you, like a painful memory. It’s important to keep this stuff. I feel like I’m not very good at explaining, and I think that’s why I started writing songs.

Q. Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
Well, it’s very low budget… Just a guitar, a bass, a synth and my laptop. A few pedals here and there, to entertain the listener with some wobbly noises, and that is it. Sometimes, the songs are being recorded really quickly and others just take days upon days upon days to finish, to the point that I don’t want to listen to them anymore… The songs come from a part of me that feels most vulnerable, so I don’t analyze the whole process really. I feel like whenever I finish recording a song, a part of me dies. The song is not mine anymore. Though, another part of me doesn’t really care, so I keep on doing it.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
There is only one new band I would recommend. Cathedral Echo! Cool vibes, even more amazing productions…

Q. Which band would you love to make a cover version of?
The aforementioned one. I’m getting my head around it at the moment. It could sound great. I think I could make a good job covering them in my style…

Q. What are your plans for the future?
I take the days as they come. John Lennon once said ‘’Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans’’. As long as I stay healthy and alive, that’s what matters to me. As long as I stay healthy and alive, I will keep recording…

Q. Any parting words?
We can’t afford to be anyone else besides ourselves. So be you, and create something that will make yours, and other people’s lives, better. Hold no faith, but only conviction…
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1 Shape - Shape was the last song I recorded for this record. I find it really funny that it ended up being the first song. It is actually one of the few songs on “Noisedive” that I intentionally tried to capture a different vibe. Like most musicians, I also gather and borrow from the bands that influence me. With this song, I tried to have a real riffer track like Dinosaur Jr. I know that typically when I try to sound like something it never actually sounds like them, but in this situation I think it worked out wonderfully. It is actually the only time on the album a “lead” riff has fuzz on it.

2 Expression - This song is my personal favorite. My wife actually filmed an incredible music video for it. It’s really special because that is not something she typically does. The video involves a lot of nature shots which coincides with the theme of the album. Go check it out! I didn’t think the song was anything special until I finished it and listened back. It encompassed exactly how I wanted things to sound. Guitar tones are the epicenter of my music and every song is named after different effects regarding that specific track. I found this title to be perfectly fitting.

3 Wash - Wash is a track that obviously showcases the lyrical theme of the album. All of the songs revolve around nature and how I see myself in it. You can hear me smoking weed and coughing in between verses, which I thought it was pretty funny. This song is about my favorite place on earth - my family beach home that I have visited every year since I was a child. I always find that place to be incredibly inspiring. I wanted this song to take me back there and when I listen to it with my eyes closed it does exactly that.

4 Saturation - Lyrically this song means the most to me. It is the first song on the album I tracked vocals for, so it really paved the way for the tone of everything. Vocals are very intimidating for me because I feel that if I sound stupid then the whole record will. So searching for the vocal tone, to not only make it sound good but to also make things sound cohesive, is very difficult. When the melody for this song came out naturally, I knew that was what I wanted. I think the poppy lead riffs are amongst some of the most beautiful riffs I have ever written. The swirling surfy guitar riffs perfectly channel the ocean.

5 Blend - I love albums that have a chill instrumental track in the middle to break up the albums dynamics. I decided to tackle that approach. But, instead of being a chill instrumental, I wanted it to be like if John Carpenter and Thurston Moore collaborated on an instrumental. I don’t know if that is how it sounds but it was really fun to make. I intentionally made this song title incredibly ironic.

6 Depth - After the the instrumental track, I wanted the next song to have a real thick wall of guitars to bring you back into the groove of the album. This is the first song I wrote on guitar for this record. It really inspired me to keep going with the LP. It was so much fun to write and came to me at a time that I really needed it. It has a really straight forward rock structure that I think flows well.

7 Tone Bending - This title is probably the most obvious on the record. This tune is an ode to “Tone Bender” by the Lily’s but with an 80s goth attitude. Before I played noise rock, I played post-punk and darkwave. So, with this track I wanted to dip back into my roots. I think this darker song adds some diversity to the record. I definitely tapped on the chorus and tried to channel my inner Robert Smith.

8 Rate - I approached this song in the production phase with the idea of having a solid song to close out the album cohesively. Even though a lot of these tracks have space rock elements, I went into this one trying harder to make a classic space rock song. Oddly enough, I don’t really think it is, but I still think it is a pretty cool track. I love the beautifully haunting synths that stand alone at the very end. Its a great closer to a record that I am very proud of.
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Q. When did Silver Dapple start? Tell us about the history...
Silver Dapple started in around 2009, but has changed a lot since then. Emily began recording “shoegazy” covers of songs she liked and eventually started composing originals. Over the years the lineup has changed. The most significant change was in 2016 when Melissa joined the band and Emily and Melissa started composing songs together. These are the songs that became the new album, Moody Boots, and the new dynamic has inspired a lot of new material.

Q: Who are your influences?
We are influenced by a lot of different things. We all have our different tastes, but I think the overlap is in a sound that is kind of dark and catchy at the same time. Personal experiences definitely shape the music that we make, as well.

Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
This is a hard one, because, like stated before, we all have our different top 5. In no order, and mixed from everyone:

Q. How do you describe Silver Dapple´s sounds?
Our sound is melancholy and pop… I think it’s better to just listen to it J

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
The songs were recorded in a short period of time, but spread out over a couple of months due to personal schedules. We recorded with Jean-Michel Coutu, which is always a lot of fun. We tried to keep the songs as close to the live versions as possible, so there wasn’t a lot of overdubbing or adding extra sounds and vocals. We worked hard to get the truest sound and feeling of each song. For certain compositions that were not 100% completed before we started recording, we took the opportunity given by the process of recording to explore different structures and moods.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
New bands we have been enjoying lately are Fountain, Freak Heat Waves, and Boy Harsher.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
We have actually done a few covers! The project started with Emily who did covers of Gun Club, Del Shannon, and Elastica. If we were to cover something now it would be fun to cover Q Lazzarus – Goodbye Horses.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
We just put out a record, Moody Boots, so we are looking forward to playing some live shows. But, we are always writing new songs, so hopefully we can put out an EP in the very near future.
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Q. When did The Sun´s Evil Twin begin? Tell us about the history...
I play in many bands since I am 16 years old, I'm 44 now. I created the band in 2015, Fred joined me a short time later. We played together in another band before.

Q. How do you feel playing live?
Unfortunately for the moment I do not have took time to recruit musicians. But I think about it at the moment.

Q. How do you describe The Sun´s Evil Twin´s sounds?
I try to create an atmosphere full of noise with some melodies which emerges from it. I want people feels dizzy when they listen to our music

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
I record the tracks in a very small home studio, sometimes I use real amps (Vox vt40, Sunn concert lead) but most of time I use amp simulation (line6 podfarm), then I mix the whole things in Cubase.

For keyboards I use Vst plugins
Same for the drums. vst drum machine. Then I add tambourine and maracas to make it more human played.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
I recommend some psych/garage french bands like Volage, Le Villejuif Underground, Marietta, Biche, Jessica 93, You said strange...I recently discuss with Robbie from The Kundalini Genie.
Great Scottish band. I love their music. I'm very impatient to hear their new album.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
One of my favorite song : Velvet underground : Sister Ray.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
Making songs again and again, find a band to play live.

Q: Any parting words?
Thank Renato for your support, big love to all brazilians. Renato you won a new reader, great job on your blog
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Q. When did Altas Nubes start? Tell us about the history...
The idea of having a band started when i met the drummer benjamin, we met online and we wanted to startup a band with the indie rock sounds we both loved from 80-90s band such as pavement, sonic youth and yo la tengo. We jammed two times and then decided to get a new band member. First we practiced with my cousin on bass, which worked at the beginning playing covers of Nirvana and Pixies songs but we had problems trying to write original songs. The band was called Sonido Perfecto back then, but it broke up. On May 2017, I asked a local musican named Sebastian (Todos Mis Amigos Ya Están Muertos) to jam in my house with Benjamín and thats where it all started, later joining us as a guitarrist Erick came along. We commited on writing original material and started rehearsing weekly at my house.

Q: Who are your influences?
One of my biggest infuence on creating music are artists who started recording their own songs and uploaded them on bandcamp or other streaming services and built their fandom by exposing their art and being good songwriters. I like the DIY ethic and I think one can be a functional musician without the needs of money or external help. Some examples are: Car seat headrest and (Sandy) Alex G.

Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
We voted on choosing an album each:
Benja: Sonic Youth - Daydream Marion
Erick: El Mató a un Policía Motorizado - La Dinastía Escorpio
Roberto: Built To Spill - There is nothing wrong with love
Sebastián: Tobogán Andaluz - Viaje de Luz

Q. How do you feel playing live?
It's outstanding, i'd say it's one of the most cathartic, and enjoyable things you can do as a human being, i highly recomend it. Also its the band's most important duty besided writing new material.

Q. How do you describe Altas Nubes´ sounds?
Our sound is kind of a mixture between indie rock sounds, i'd say; Including early indie and new sounds from the actual argentinan indie scene. Plus elements of dreampopy, slacker and shoegaze guitars, and let's say emo style singing in some of the songs.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
The recording process starts with the drums. It's definitely the hardest of all instruments, we used 2 mics, one dinamic mic for the bass drum and a condenser mic for everything else. Once we have the drum tracks we record bass and guitars, in that order we finalize with the vocals and the mastering process.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Snail mail is one of my favorite newest band I've heard recently also I'd like to mention newest record of Las Ligas Menores, an argentinan band that we like a lot.
We also like to recommend some bands from our country: Monte isn't a new band but it's one of our favorite and one big inspiration for the band, queridos edificios, kibbo kift, dylan thomas and triddi.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
I would love to play a cover version of any song off Alex g's DSU but the one I think I could convince the band to play is "Boy".

Q: What are your plans for the future?
We're planning on recording another ep this year, this one will include a concept recurring on most of the songs, I wouldn't say it's a concept ep but it will be more consistent on it's themes and sounds than the ST.

Q: Any parting words?
Thank you so much Renato for this chance of talking, we're very happy you liked our sound and hope to keep you guys updated on our next move.
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Q. When did Under Orbit begin? Tell us about the history...
Js Curley: In 2015 I purchased a drum machine and borrowed a bass to begin a journey into lofi home-reccording/ demoing. I had met Drew White a few years prior after becoming a huge fan of his band at the time (Face on Mars). After my band Stellatone played a few shows with Face on Mars locally, we really connected on a mutual love of effect pedals/ soundscapes/ love of various bands. A few years later we formed the band a spacey heavy rock band MOON. After a few shows MOON eventually fizzled out and we all moved on to new projects. Post-MOON, Drew joined my project Stellatone playing rhythm guitar for a few years. In 2015 after drew and I finished a summer Stellatone tour, we began collaborating on some home-recordings. We did not become a “real” band until I booked a show opening for Zvi (Ron Varod of Kayo Dot/ Sabbath Assembly) and Hattiesburg heavies Year of the Vulture with another band that fell through. I called Drew and began assembling a backing band consisting of bassist Jonathan Lee Parks (Face on Mars/ex-MOON/Stellatone (keyboardist at the time)) and drummer John Littlejohn (Before I Hang/Emerald Heavy/ex-MOON/ Savage Master) to develop a live set. The current lineup still includes these members however due to heavy touring commitments with Savage Master, our friend Quinn Mackey (Nossiens// Dream/ Window) plays drums when John is not available.

Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
Jsc: This is what I’ve been digging at the moment:
Flaming lips- Embryonic
The Cure- Disintegration
Pink Floyd- Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Rush- Exit Only
Holy Sons- Decline of the West

Q. How do you feel playing live?
Jsc: Absolutely! If I can ever get out of graduate school we’ll definitely book more shows

Q. How do you describe Under Orbit´s sounds?
Jsc: Lofi, goth, experimental

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
Jsc: Either myself or Drew writes a song’s skeleton then we meet up and record it. After the skeleton is down, we work out parts to overdub

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Jsc: Wild frames, Pleather, Electric Witch, Ceramicbliss, Control Room, The Stars Are Weeping

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
Flaming lips, Sonic Youth, or The Cure!

Q: What are your plans for the future?
Get out of grad school, hash out another Under Orbit album, and hopefully take it on the road.

Q: When did Crash Dept start? Tell us about the history…
(G) In fact, we've been around for some 8 years: we first formed as Twinmachine in 2010 to play old school goth post-punk. As it usually tends to happen, things had gone wrong at some moment, we lost momentum and technically disbanded by 2012 (still managed to release a full-length album though). The latest reunion attempt resulted in our car slamming into a concrete fence shortly after we drove out to play a gig in a neighboring town (things can get tricky on snowy roads at -30°C). Okay, we thought, maybe it's time for a major reboot. (Also we decided that our new band name just HAD to have 'Crash' in it. Unavoidable JG Ballard reference! I guess we'll have to do a Warm Leatherette cover)

Long story short, if I were to write a book about those years I'd go with a title "How To Screw Up Your Band For Sure".

We 'restarted' just recently, and the rest is technical details. What you hear on the debut EP comes partly from the old demo archive and is partly new, and I should say we've got a few more demos in that archive.

Q: Who are your influences?
(G) Unsurprisingly enough, we grew up largely on late 90's music. Britpop, nu metal, big beat, industrial rock... you name it.

And then came the Internet-powered post-punk and shoegaze rediscovery. The March Violets, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, The Chameleons UK, Comsat Angels etc. had inspired our earlier goth rock efforts, and you might hear traces of it in Crash Dept as well. Bauhaus and Peter Murphy had defined Constantine's vocal manner. And, of course, early 90's Curve, Ride, JAMC and MBV albums were like a revelation and later a production handbook to me! Also, nearly everything I love in modern music turned out to have been produced or mixed by Alan Moulder by some coincidence.

Lastly, the 2nd wave bands like Ceremony and APTBS just made us do it!

Q: Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
(G) Obvious shoegaze classics aside, over some debate we've agreed upon these supersolid monoliths one can listen to without skipping a track:
(in alphabetical order)

British Steel by Judas Priest
Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
Disintegration by The Cure
God Hates Us All by Slayer
Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins

Q: How do you feel playing live?
(G) At the start of the set, mostly "When does it end?" and "I wanna go home". At the end of the set, "Seems not so bad. Wait, what, the last song already?" As stressful and anxiety-fueling as it gets, there can hardly be anything more emotionally rewarding than a successful gig, so it's a love/hate relationship. Anyway, we're a studio band rather than a live act at the moment, however hope to return to the stage sometime soon.

Q: How do you describe Crash Dept's sounds?
(G) I'd love to think of it as The Missing Link between Loveless and Pretty Hate Machine (pun intended). Well, some people have described our sound as 'true' or 'classic' shoegaze. I'm okay with that: it's not like we dream of reinventing the genre, and we can't relate much to all that recent dreampop hype.

And yes, that said, we're preparing the next EP which will sound somewhat different as we feel a need to close the Trent Reznor-wannabe gestalt, so I guess Crash Dept is going to not just be a shoegaze band but a broader attempt to interpret that decade's legacy and reflect on our background.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
(G) A song usually starts with a bedroom demo, then some structure tweaks follow and the lyrics appear (Constantine does that; I don't know how and I suspect some kind of magic).

All the tracking and mixing gets done at my studio (I also happen to be an audio engineer working with the local underground bands). Sometimes it takes an evening or two to lay down all the guitars for a song, sometimes years (as revisions and re-recordings come). There's usually some serious multilayering involved too.

As you know, a track can never be finished, just abandoned. If we hadn't set a deadline I'd probably still be editing a thirty-something revision of the opening track mix.

One could think that recording/mixing your own music (when you've got the skills and gear) is pretty convenient but I'm afraid that's totally opposite. You end up overthinking, overworking and plainly wasting time trying to get your song another millimeter closer to perfection that almost no one would give a damn about. Don't be like me: support your local engineers!

Q: Which new bands do you recommend?
(G) There are so many new bands these days that you just regret you have only 24 hours a day!
It's hard to trace every band's background (besides, I'm not really sure what counts as new) so I'll go by the latest albums/EPs instead if you don't mind.

So let's see: Principe Valiente (Swe) released a wonderful album last year, be sure to check it out if you've come from the dark side just like us; what else... FUTURE (Fr), DoZzz (Tw), Lacing (US), Soft Touch(US), Luby Sparks (Jp), Collapse (Jp), Lowtide (Au) to name a few. As for the adjacent genres, I'm totally in love with High-Fuctioning Flesh and Drab Majesty.

Q: Which band would you love to make a cover version of?
(G) The Normal (see Q1), Front 242, The Human League... There was a period we wanted to abandon guitars altogether and start a synth rock band. Well, doing guitar versions of those would be fun too!

Also we've got A Taste Of Decay by Whispers In The Shadow in our goth rock setlist and it sounds unexpectedly raw and aggressive. We prefer not to announce that it's a cover so the audience might think we can write good songs.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
(G) Apparently, to make another bunch of typical band mistakes we hadn't made yet. Anyhow, recording the next EP is top priority, and then we'll see. Planning is not our strong side, if there's any.

Q: Any parting words?
(G) So long and thanks for all the fish. I mean media support. Renato is the man! Also remember to stay hydrated and please mind the gap.

Q. When did Bruises start? Tell us about the history...J and I (Angie) have been playing music together longer than we have been married. We have been playing music together for 20 years, we were the rhythm section in bands (I’m a drummer and he played bass) for a solid 10 years. As those bands ended, we didn’t want to be done with music so we began writing on our own. In around 2008, we started writing as our own project. We had a different name that recently became Bruises.

Q: Who are your influences? For me, Jimmy Eat World was a huge influence for years- as a drummer. Third eye blind, Paramore, frightened rabbit is probably an all time favorite. The late singer’s most recent project has been a big influence most recently and are called Mastersystems.

As far as Bruises songs and inspiration and influence go, Frightened Rabbit was suggested to me by a close friend and when I heard them I thought- this band gets me. The album Pedestrian Verse was where I started. Then I just wanted everything I could get. I really love a song that reaches into my heart. The headspace that a song creates usually gets me writing and thinking.

Jason would tell you that Rush was big for him as a bassist. Starflyer 59 is a favorite of his, Sensefield as well. His musical background has a lot of variety, hip hop, punk, heavy metal. He can digest a lot more than I can. As a musician, my bloody valentine has been a huge influence for him. Art through film effects and inspire J as well. Twin Peaks was big for him.

Q. How do you feel playing live? Playing live is my favorite thing. Shaping our songs to be exciting live is fun. I hope to book a lot of shows for this summer.

Q. How do you describe Bruises´ sounds? Rock, shoegaze, alt rock. You tell us. This is a hard one. We just write music that we like the sound of.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ? Well, if Jason has any song ideas recorded, I go through them to see what grabs my attention. Sometimes it starts that way and I put melodies to it. Lately, I will write a song on guitar, add vocals and Jason builds it from there. We get a feel for the mood and tempo we want and add drums. The recording process is where Jason really gets creative. I love how the songs become more complete with his additions. It’s like I bring a skeleton of a song and he fully dresses it.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of? David Bowie or Queen would be a pic for me, sensefield, frightened rabbit since they’ve had such a huge influence on me. Jason says photograph by Def Leppard.

Q: What are your plans for the future? To play a lot of live shows, write a lot of new songs.

Q. When did Shun start? Tell us about the history...
I think we started getting together sometime in 2014. We were just a couple of friends coming from different musical backgrounds who wanted to make music again. Initially we wanted to start out as a hardcore/punk band since that was the smallest common denominator I guess, haha. So we started playing in Jan’s old basement (which we lost later on due to a pipe burst; it was a miracle that our equipment survived mostly undamaged). With each time we played together we strayed a bit further from that original idea and now we’ve ended up where we are now. It really took us some time to find our sound though, and it wasn’t until 2016 that we started to really pursue the idea of forming a real band that plays shows and all…

Q: Who are your influences?
Most of us have their musical taste all over the place. For the band though, the most essential influences come from dream pop, grunge, and noisier shoegaze, all from both traditional and newer bands. Like I said above, initially our sound was more punk/hc influenced before we added some grunge and finally a lot of dreamy stuff to our style. Our favorite bands include Beach House, Title Fight, Wild Nothing but obviously also more “classic” bands such as Slowdive have influenced our sound.

Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
Jan (drums): This Will Destroy You – s/t
Maxim (guitars): The Vaders – A Link to the Past
Mitch (guitars): Rancid – And Out Come the Wolves
Martin (bass, vocals): The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead

And one that all of us adore a whole lot: Turnover – Peripheral Vision

Q. How do you feel playing live?
To be honest, after about 20 shows now we still feel a little overwhelmed and anxious about each time we go on stage. I think it’s mainly because of the expectations we have about our own performance, we want to do our best. Funnily enough, depending on the place where we play we sometimes don’t expect anything great at all – which makes all of feel a lot more comfortable about everything that happens on stage. Those have turned out to become the better shows in the process, haha! But no matter where we go we always love to play new cities, we have been to many places in Germany and the Netherlands already and in June we will play in Vienna, Austria for the first time. It’s definitely an important aspect about the whole band thing – playing live and hanging out together and with other bands.

Q. How do you describe Shun´s sounds?
We like to describe our music as a mixture of the grittiness and bleak atmosphere of Nothing and the catchy, melodic focus of Turnover. Both of those bands have also been great influences on us, obviously. I guess overall we’re still not entirely sure how “dirty” we want our music to sound. It’s
never gonna be lo-fi or anything like that, but after this first EP sounding rather modern and “clear” we will see how the new songs we are writing right now will develop and which sound fits them best.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
“Nothing Quite As Heavy” was recorded in September and October last year. We spent 4 days at Tiny Pond Studio in Hanover, which is a 2 ½ hour drive from Münster where we live. We rented an apartment for the time, and it made the whole experience really unique since we really spent the entire time together: when we were done in the studio for the day, we went on to cook dinner together and so on. Unfortunately, I (Martin) was really sick for most of the time, so I drank literally nothing else but ginger tea for 5 days straight. I recovered a little just before we began recording the vocals, but still had to take a shot of nose drops before each new take, haha. For “Over Me” our friend Vicky from Münster took the time to come to Hanover as well to put in some additional vocals. We had only tried it in our rehearsal space a few times and had no idea what it would sound like in a proper recording setup, but the result made us all really happy. After the initial 4 days, Mitch and I went to Hanover one more time in October to record additional noises and background sounds. Our car broke down before heading back which made everything a lot more complicated (since we had all the gear with us), but that’s another story.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Out of all the bands in Germany right now, our friends in Swirlpool are definitely the most ambitious. Their debut EP comes out May 25th and we’re happy to play a few shows with them, because we believe that’s some of the best shoegaze/alternative stuff to come out of this country for a long, long time. Seriously, check them out. Also, the first LP by New Native from Austria has been released earlier this year

Q: Which band would you love to make a cover version of?
Right now we are working on a cover version of Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home”. Like I said, our tastes are really varied and all of us (excluding Maxim, haha) are big fans of Drizzy! Many of his songs also have this kind of somber atmosphere to them, so we wanted to explore how that translates to our sound. We’ll let you know when we have an audible result.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
The rest of this year will be dedicated to playing shows and writing new songs for a follow-up release. There are a lot of ideas already and we aim to push our own abilities a bit further. In the long run, the next big goal is to craft a release that will make it to vinyl somehow. It would be great to have our own music on our favorite physical format one day.

Q: Any parting words?
We’re glad that so many people from outside of Germany show their interest! In Europe it sometimes feels like all bands/artists are somewhat prone to anything that comes from the US. And even though we also love a lot of that stuff we hope to make a contribution to our own scene and show that there’s something worth listening to from our continent.
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Strangled by Stars...is the opening track of “Been Caught Feeling,” and probably my most shoegaze-esque track to date. When I started the Skating Party, it was very much a “bedroom recording project,” which leaned heavily on the use of vintage drum machines and synths. I wanted to open this album with a track that was punchy, and that had a big live band feel, even though it was still one person. I loved tracking this song, and really was really pleased with the drum sound and the noisy guitars for the outro section. I tried to create a push/pull effect with some rawness in the verse and hopeful lyrics in the chorus. A synthy organ makes a subtle appearance in the 2nd verse, because some habits you cannot break, haha. The album version has a very low, almost inaudible intro, so my
apologies if you crank this track to hear it and your ear drums get beat up when the song kicks in.

Diamonds…This song started out with a chorus melody, and I remember only having the syllables without the lyrics. I was trying to figure out the words that fit, and then the song sort of morphed into a tale of a young girl with much attention from her male peers. The girl in the story is seems perfect because she is so much like guys that adore her, but it’s also her downfall. I tried to make the verses have a psychedelic feel, with twangy delayed guitars and an unorthodox drumbeat before it gets into
the cleaner pre-chorus, chorus, etc. The track was never released as a single and I shot a homemade video to be released as the lead single from the album.

Tomorrow’s Charade…is a story of boy meets girl then boy gets a little hung up knowing that it’s never going to work out between them. Point being, sometimes you just know the outcome, but you go along for the ride regardless. I layered various synth sounds blended with sweeping xylophone
notes to set the mood of the song on each intro and chorus melody . The song is very jangly and I like the single note melodies in the chorus. I programmed drums for this track, which is the only song w/out “live drums’ (besides the bonus track) on the record, but I think it still fits in with the rest of the album. The tambourine, however, is real…very real, haha.

Twin Polar…is one of the 1st songs I recorded for the album and the 1st track I recorded with “live drums,” in my current home studio. I also close miked the drums which somehow gave the song areal analog warmth to it in my humble opinion. As I was writing it, it really felt like something you would hear in a winter storm with its sluggish verse and chorus. With that said, the lyrics followed a tormented soul trudging through a storm only to realize it doesn’t get much better when he returns
home. I really liked how the outro guitar solo turned out, and extra credit goes to anyone who can figure out the inaudible background scream at the very end.

Remember the Chain…I was working on this track a year ago, when TBTCI approached me about a Dreampop Comp which I then gladly finished and submitted the track. The only changes I made to the song since the original mix, were some EQ and level changes to the Mix and Master. The song is about a past relationship when each person realizes how much better that may have been, have they met later in life. It was tricky trying to mix the multiple vocal melodies in the outro, but it’s the best I could do, and I am happy with the results…for now.

Draped in Gloom… I wrote this track about a very unique crush that was doomed from beginning. There’s something inspiring about “what if,” situations. The chorus came first when I was writing the song, and I decided, it would be nice to have a song begin with the chorus for a change, instead of the
usual Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus The delayed trills in the beginning added a cool effect and mood to the song, and really sums of the subtle use of keys on this album instead of being so upfront like past albums. I made a video of women in distress from classic slasher films which I thought fit the song’s lyrics in a strange way. I channeled Robert Smith a bit on the vocals, so hopefully he doesn’t mind.

Soft Impressions…I wanted to close the album with a slower acoustic track, and I ended up using drums anyway and making this song much more elaborate than I intended. This song has one of my favorite lyrics from the album which is “loves’ a hospice, I’m her servant, with commitment, she’s
allergic.” This line led me to title, “Been Caught Feeling,” as it sums up the theme of the album as a whole, which is, life is short, so make the most of the relationships you find along the way, even if they are very small. I tried to create a dreamy effect with the e-bow guitar on this song, which is another favorite tool of mine.

Glass Curtains…This song was written, right after my last album, “Drowning the Electric Boy,” and as you may be able to tell, it would probably fit more on that record as it is more “electronic,” in its overall production. With that being said, I decided to include it as a bonus track on the CD and Cassette versions. The song is about the thin line between love and obsession. Out of all of the tracks, I think the vocals on this track came out in the top tier, for sure. Also, yes, there was a shout out to Philadlephia’s “Memory Tapes,” aka “Hail Social” in the 2nd Verse.
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A mix of class of 86 and New Order, the project Pink Haus, after some appetizers of what would become the first EP, finally released on April 30, the eponymous EP.

A lazy delight, with moments of purest glittering dreamy pop. Guided by delicate synths and even more lazy vocalization, the Pink Haus is perfect for intimate moments and total tranquility.

Pink Haus is the synthetic fi fi for your dreams.

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Q. When did Pin Haus start? Tell us about the history...
1) Not a lot of people know this, but "PINK HAUS" was born in April 2017 under a completely different nickname (not going to say which one it was), and a different subject, actually mainly focused on memes and my persona/alter ego. Since I was already a DIY musician, under that name I slowly started to post some covers of my favourite 80s bands, and received quite a bit of approval from my fanbase. That convinced me to shift the focus of the page from comedy to music, my real passion, and change my name to something closer to me (my childhood house is pink; "HAUS" is house in german), while still keeping my anonymity and the classic image of the white mask and black hat. On February 2018 I released my first original single Warm Beer, from "PINK HAUS ep", and the rest is history.

Q: Who are your influences?
2) While it's pretty obvious that my main influences are the bands and sounds of the eighties, I also enjoy quite alot some of the '60 acts like The Velvet Underground and The Beach Boys. Generally speaking I really enjoy anything that makes a good use of reverb (my favourite sound effect), and that can be any shoegaze/dreampop act as well as the vaporwave/cloud rap-wave (particularly Blank Banshee, Clams Casino or Saint Pepsi). Overall I'd say my all time favourite band is The Cure.

Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
3) This is a very hard one, but I'll try anyway. I'll put them as my personal favourite albums, rather than of all time though.
In no particular order:
Disintegration by The Cure,
The Velvet Underground & Nico,
Pet Sounds/Smile by The Beach Boys,
Loveless by My Bloody Valentine,
and La Folie by The Stranglers

Q. How do you feel playing live?
4) As of today, I still haven't got the chance to perform live as PINK HAUS sadly enough. But of course I'd love to, and since I'm planning to move to London at the end of the year, my first official live date might come sooner than you think.

Q. How do you describe Pink Haus´ sounds?
5) Lots of reverb, lo-fi microphone recordings, bizarre synth and drums choices and deadpan/strained vocals over personal and sometimes cryptic lyrics. Oh, and did I mention reverb?

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
6) I'd describe it as "different". I first think about a vague concept of which I could make a song out of. Then I choose a title out of it and revolve all the recording and writing lyrics process on that, creating a vibe/sound/chord pattern that could suit that "particular" vague concept. The last thing I do I writing proper lyrics, but it's actually the easiest part, as I can create them usually in less than half an hour and recording them is a quick process as well, often on the first try.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
7) I enjoy Beach House, Childish Gambino, Deafheaven (to a degree), Ghost B.C. (*insert Scooby Doo chase music joke*), Kendrick Lamar, Neutral.Solitude, PINK HAUS (joking), Blank Banshee, Death Grips (I love them, and had the fortune to see them live VERY CLOSE to the stage), John Maus and Clams Casino. Most of hese artists aren't actually extremely new/unknown to the music business, but I mean, compared to what I usually listen to...

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
8) I'd love to make a Stranglers cover, one of my favourite bands, but many of their songs are actually quite challenging for me to recreate decently: they are very talented musicians. Also would love to make a Siouxsie & The Banshees or Cranberries song, but given that I find pretty hard to pull off female vocals, that's yet another challenge/obstacle to make those.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
9) I'm currently working on the physical release of my debut album "PINK HAUS ep" (and it's going to be a special one), and also a free-to-download/streaming compilation, "Covers Vol.I", a collection of my old covers remastered, with 5-6 brand new covers too, and hopefully to release it by the end of June 2018. That's all I can say for now.

Q: Any parting words?
10) To every wannabe musician: keep going strong, and don't lose the hope too easily. And regarding me, check out my Facebook page for further news and releases and don't forget to support independent artists like me: they really need the support of their fans as they are the future of music.
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Q. When did Nova Flares start? Tell us about the history...
Answer : Nova Flares started in the summer of 2017 when I started making music I felt was cinematic enough for a series of music videos that a videographer friend of mine wanted to make. I ended up really liking what I was recording so I just made it a new music project of mine. Coincidentally , my last music project “The Corridors” , which has a completely different sound , was facing lawsuit threats from a European band with the same name. It was time to move on anyways and start something new.

Q: Who are your influences?
Answer : There are so many influences that I have musically but for this music specifically I was incredibly inspired by a few different styles of music.

That was really hard by the way. haha I grew up on classic rock so my earliest memories are of those records, and ultimately those records are the reason I ever wanted to make music in the first place.

Q. How do you feel playing live?
Answer : I feel nervous. All day before a show and for the first 15-20 minutes of the set usually , and then I feel the greatest ecstasy I could ever feel and never want to stop playing and being in that moment. Being that nervous is something I acknowledge as something special. It’s there because each show you play will always be different than the last show, and you don’t know what to expect but It causes pure adrenaline and without that it wouldn't be near as special and rewarding when you are finally up there sharing a part of your soul with everyone. It’s the same reason people skydive or do unfamiliar things that scare them. That’s the best way I can describe it.

Q. How do you describe Nova Flares´ sounds?
Answer: Atmospheric Surf music with a Neo-Psychedelic twist.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
Answer: For a whole summer I would literally just wake up , have a couple cups of coffee and think about transferring the times I had in the previous weeks into the sound of music. Just about every day I was writing new riffs which would eventually fill out into full songs when I would start recording. Normally all it takes is recording a guitar riff, bass riff , or drum beat and then before you know it, the song is practically writing itself. I was also working a bartending job at the time where I made drinks alone in an isolated room of a hotel and not at an actual bar , and when we were not busy I would be back there with my laptop listening to my recordings , thinking of melodies and concepts and recording the ideas into my phone. Using my time on the job to develop the Nova Flares tracks and concepts. Some of these songs were literally mixed and mastered on my laptop while I was working as a bartender at a hotel.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
Answer: Thats a hard question but for now I would have to say, “Pale Blue Eyes” by The Velvet Underground or “Dead Flowers” By The Rolling Stones , despite the fact that it’s been covered a lot.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
Answer: Im about to go move in with record producer friend of mine for a year and learn recording techniques / collaborate with him and a plethora of artists , and after the year is over and I’ve furthered my education I will be moving to Austin , Texas where there is a ridiculously amazing music scene. I took a visit out there two weeks ago and it was paradise to me. Where I grew up and live currently there isn’t near as much going on.

Q: Any parting words?
Answer: Yes, I would just like to thank you for interviewing me and expressing your love for music to the world, especially MY music , because not everyone will do that and it’s something that I hold very dear to me. I don't get offended when people don’t like my music , but I still LOVE when people like my music. It gives me joy to think that I’ve inspired artists or people in even the tiniest ways , so thanks to you and all of the listeners out there. Physical copies of my EP are officially printed and will be available on my website www.novaflares.com on June 1st which is less than a month away. There will only be 100 copies to sell so if you like this music a lot , buy a copy from me. They won’t be expensive. An album is in the works and will be available in the next year or so at a larger quantity but this EP will be a very personal , scarce keepsake of whats to come with Nova Flares. Once again , I love and thank you all .

Q. When did Sonic Apparitions start? Tell us about the history...
A. Sonic Apparitions started from my desire to want to hit the stage again. Having not played live for a number of years, I do miss the feeling of performing, and since I have been creating music independently for about a year before this band’s conception, I figured I would start this project to spearhead my return to playing shows. Also, this is a unique opportunity for me to meld together many of my musical influences into a (somewhat) cohesive style.

Q: Who are your influences?
A: Amesoeurs, Diiv, Whirr, Caspian, Deafheaven, Anathema, Grimes, The Cure, Pastel Ghost, The Police, Honeyblood, Thirty Seconds to Mars, and probably many others. I am also influenced by a variety of old school Cantopop; Danny Chan and Andy Lau to name a few.

E: My main influences on bass would be Peter Hook (Joy Divison/New Order), Steven Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees), and Andy Rourke (The Smiths). Genrewise, I listen to anything that has lots of atmosphere or incorporates usage of synths.

E. In no particular order -
Agalloch's Ashes Against the Grain,
Alcest's Écailles de Lune,
Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures,
New Order's Power, Corruption, and Lies,
and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Juju.

Q. How do you feel playing live?
A. This band was formed with my hopes of returning to the stage. No other feeling comes close to the thrill of performing.

E. I'm looking forward to it

Q. How do you describe Sonic Apparitions´ sounds?
A. The sounds were inspired by my experiences driving through the city at night. It’s exciting and always a rush, and at the same time, relaxing and soothing.

E. Upbeat dream-poppy shoegaze with hints of metal

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
A. Everything was recorded in our home studios, with guitars through DI, a DI blend with Bass, and programmed/sampled drums. The post production was done at my place as well.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
A. I recently discovered an electronic artist going by the name of Pastel Ghost that plays an eclectic style of dance/synthwave combined with the textures of shoegaze and dreampop. Her album Abyss came out in 2015 and was one of my best discoveries of late! Highly recommend!

E. Alex Cameron and Japanese Breakfast. Forced Witness and Soft Sounds from Another Planet are my favorite albums of 2017.

Q: Which band would you love to make a cover version of?
A. Any old school Cantopop classic.

E. New Order's Age of Consent

Q: What are your plans for the future?
A. I would love to start doing regular shows. My ultimate goal is to be able to long-term tour.

E. Playing live and recording more music.

Q: Any parting words?
A. Thanks for giving a new band like us attention we hope to rock the stage soon!

E. Thank you for listening to our music and hopefully you enjoy any future releases we have.
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Q. When did Loom start? Tell us about the history...
1. Loom started about one and a half years ago, me and a few friends just kinda messed around making some songs in his basement until I met casey our other guitarist off of reddit, that’s kinda when things really got started since we all worked so well together and had all the same influences and ideas.

Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
3. Top 5 albums are:
Loveless-MBV.
Around-Whirr.
Music has the right to children-Boards of Canada.
Floral Green-Title Fight.
Roads to Judah-Deafheaven.

And one more to break the rules Dyatlov-Sana Obruent

Q. How do you feel playing live?
4. We haven’t played live yet but we will June 21st at beer land in Austin so come see!

Q. How do you describe Loom´s sounds?
5. How we describe our sound is big cascading glacier of noise that you can serenade yourself in.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
6. Uusually me or casey comes up with an idea of a song or a fully complete song and we bring it to everyone else and we all just add more stuff too it and jam on it until we really feel like we have something down, the actual recording process is really simple and DIY, we have some shitty mics we just record with in my friends basement then I just do all the mixing where ever I can to make sure it sounds ok on different speakers.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
7. New bands we recommend are Blankenberge, Warm, Keep, Sway, No Sun.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
8. We’re probably gunna be covering Cherry waves or pink maggit by Deftones since it’s easy and it sounds good in the ears.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
9. We’re currently working on a shelter for homeless caterpillars in the tri state area, other than that we’re just gunna keep making music until we have to split from all the stress of being too good, new stuff is gunna be better, louder, heavier, and pg-13 AKA Nick at Nite AKA Adult Swim.

Q: Any parting words?
10. Parting words: we are better than the beatles and elvis combined. And also thank you to everyone who checks out our music and supports it.
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Q: When did Douse start? Tell us about the history…
A: Douse started a shade over a year ago. We conceptualized the band as a two-piece (Collin Fox & Josh Borosky.) We had initially hoped for the project to be much more metal influenced and pump out progressive, doomy jams (check out our first demo “Cavalier” on bandcamp.) Collin and Josh had been playing music together for years and had been in projects together before, but we knew we needed a full band to achieve our goals. The next few songs we wrote took a slight turn; We adapted a more jangly, smooth tone although we did not want to lose any of our rough edges. Our drummer, Dylan Smeltzer, was next to join. We played our first show in March of 2017 and then began to self-record our first release (“row”) immediately after. Kyle Cosgrove, a lifelong friend, joined the band as a second guitarist that summer. We focused heavily on live shows in the following months.

Q: Who are your influences?
A: All four of us have a pretty eclectic taste in music. Collectively though, we derive much of our sound from 90’s - early 2000’s alternative music. The grunge era, shoegaze, post-rock, hardcore punk, skramz and even some doom metal all influence our music. Not only do we take influence from music, but also from the people, places and things that personally speak to us. Lyrically our songs are personal, yet ambiguous. We’ll take ideas from anything; Horror movies, relationships or even the shitty car we are driving.

Q: Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
A: I’m sure this is a tough question for everyone. As said in the last question, we all have different tastes and influences. I wouldn’t say this is a “favorite albums of all time” list, but here’s 5 albums we all love, admire and wish we wrote:

Q: How do you feel playing live?
A: Gigs are the reason we do this. We try to bring the same energy to every show, no matter where we are or who we are playing with. We love playing mixed bills especially with out-of-town bands and other folks who truly support the DIY scene. We set up all of our own shows and do all the dirty work. Douse will play alongside any genre in essentially any venue. Our sets are loud, sweaty and full of spontaneity.

Q: How do you describe Douse´s sounds?
A: Everything Douse pumps out comes naturally. We do not have a specific process for writing nor do we ever have an end game when starting a song. We love tempo, time-signature and key changes within songs. We hope to execute that even more going forward. It’s important for us to tighten up our overall sound, yet stay true to everything that influences us. We like the fact that we can be loosely pegged as shoegaze, but still sound much different than your typical dream-pop band.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
A: Recording our most recent self-titled EP was different than our usual process. We are used to recording all of our own material. The first Douse release, row, was recorded all in Collin’s house. We recorded pretty much everything live and did very little editing. We used everything that we would have used playing the songs at a gig. Our self titled EP that just came out on May 11th was recorded at Midley Grange Studios. Dylan Nalyd recorded, mixed and mastered the whole thing and he killed it. We recorded it all in 1 day and used a lot of the same strategies we used in the past; No cutting and pasting. We wanted these tracks to sound exactly like they do live.

Q: Which new bands do you recommend?
A: Honestly there are so many new, amazing bands within our genre bubble. We will take this as an opportunity to plug some of our Philly/Scranton friends that we respect and admire: So Totally, Cheap Seats, Cavity Kids, Kenny 3, Idolizer.

Q: Which band would you love to make a cover version of?
A: We don’t generally do covers. We played a cover live once and it was “When you sleep” by My Bloody Valentine. It’s easy to cover bands that you love or bands that sound just like you. I’ve always found covers that are drastically outside the band’s genre the most interesting. We haven’t done it yet, but keep your eyes peeled for a Rod Stewart “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” cover. That sax solo solo screams fuzzy guitar.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: We never stop writing. Expect another short release or two before the year is over. Playing shows is our favorite thing about Douse so playing bigger, more impactful gigs is the short-term goal. We hope to play with some more recognized bands and play in some new cities. We haven’t played out of Pennsylvania yet, so this summer we will be playing out of town gigs. Eventually a tour will be in the works, hopefully by the end of this year. Creating some merch, physical copies of our music and a music video are also on the agenda. We try not to think too far ahead.

Q: Any parting words?
A: First and foremost, thank you for this opportunity. We love speaking about Douse in any capacity to fresh ears. Secondly, stay true to who you are and be good to one another. Respect musicians and artists alike and treat people the way you would like to be treated. Make music for that feeling you get when someone you’ve never met tells you that your music impacted them in a positive way. Douse has no other agenda.
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